Rick Scott blasts Joe Biden, predicts ‘frustrating start’ for incoming administration

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, on Friday morning’s iteration of Varney & Co., lamented that incoming President Joe Biden is off to a “pretty frustrating start.”

Scott told host Stuart Varney and the Fox Business Network audience of his doubts that the Senate could handle the latest impeachment of President Donald Trump and contemplation of the President-elect’s proposed stimulus bill at the same time.

“It’s going to be tough,” the first-term Republican from Naples said ruefully.

“First off, the impeachment is just a political vendetta. I mean, why don’t we focus on what people need? People need to take care of our families, to take care of our small businesses.”

“You saw a preview of what the next four years are going to look like with what Biden put out yesterday,” the Senator cautioned. “We’re going to spend, what, $2 trillion on a program where you’ve already spent $4.5 trillion and it’s not going to target the people you want.”

“It’s just a political payback,” Scott said, recycling familiar complaints about stimulus spending bailing out New York and California from decisions made by Democratic governors.

Biden, Scott contended, is “not bringing unity” and is “off to a pretty frustrating start.”

Scott, the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is not the only Senate Republican from Florida with doubts about the Biden proposal. Sen. Marco Rubio urged a clean stimulus payment to be sent out to people, sans support funds for state and local governments and other points of GOP contention.

“All too often, popular and necessary legislation is used as leverage to secure passage for policies that cannot pass on their own merit,” he wrote. “We have already seen it in the midst of the pandemic when additional funding for small businesses was blocked repeatedly for months on end. Please do not allow direct payments to the American people to get caught up in the normal political games by adding a wish list of far left or other unrelated priorities to this legislation.”

Scott and Rubio are each potential Presidential candidates in 2024, and the smart money is that points of contention will abound for each man in the years leading up to the primary push.